Pigeons are put in so many dangerous situations. Domestic pigeons have been around as pets for about 10,000 years it is thought. Much like chihuahuas can’t survive in the wild unlike wolves, domestic pigeons no longer possess the skills to find food, water, shelter, and evade predators when abandoned.  

This puts them in a very dangerous situation that often leads to them quickly being severely injured, killed, or left starving slowly. There are a quite a few categories of pigeons that need rescuing. Here we have highlighted some of the major groups and why they need rescuing for you.

Lost Racing Pigeons

Racing pigeons are used in a gambling sport that releases pigeons to fly extremely long distances without food or water.

Oftentimes, these birds are found extremely sick and the owner’s do not want them back. A lot of times if the owners get them back, they send them back out again or kill them because they lost the race and are no longer valuable to them. A lot of info on racing pigeons can be found here.

Dove Release Pigeons

White homing pigeons are used commonly for dove releases. Oftentimes the dove release pigeons we get in are ~4-6 weeks old. Contrary to popular belief, tons never make it back home.

The danger of releasing them is incredible and cruel in itself as so many predators can attack them. Many claim to train them to come back but they only are able to fly at about 4 weeks old and the ones we get in are generally unbanded meaning there is no time. Regardless of training, it is extremely dangerous to free fly in general and they are very susceptible to predation especially given their coloring which stands out to predators.

King Pigeons

This breed is used for meat and is usually processed by 4 weeks old. Some individuals escape live markets and end up on the streets.

Being extremely large with no camouflaging or survival skills, these pigeons best chance is a kind person realizing that they need help and taking them in.

Fancy Pigeons

There are tons of pigeons that fall under this category. Essentially they are the ornamental show breeds of pigeons.

While occasionally they are lost pets, if found on the streets a large amount of the time, it was straight abandonment of the pigeon. We always recommend searching lost pet sites just to be safe though.

Unreleaseable Feral Pigeons

Occasionally a wild pigeon will be deemed unreleasable by a certified wildlife rehabber.

If the pigeon seems capable of transitioning to a domestic lifestyle, sometimes rehabbers will try to place these unreleaseable birds in a home so that they can live a full life. 

Pigeons Used For Bird Dog Training

Another situation we get in fairly frequently are domestic pigeons being used as training animals for dog hunting. They are usually severely injured and can have things like their wings taped together to make it easier for dogs in training to catch them. These poor birds need a lot of TLC. From what we have seen, a lot of these birds appear to be racing pigeon breeds. We believe that the racers may be selling pigeons that don’t perform well to the bird dog hunters. 

How You Can Help:

If you see an abandoned domestic pigeon, please be sure to catch it and bring it to safety.

If you’d like to support our rescue work, donations are greatly appreciated and help us both to educate and take care of the ~120 rescues that call our sanctuary home. 

You can sign up to sponsor a bird monthly or donate through this link.

We also have quite a bit of resources to help you. 

Here is how to catch a pigeon.

Here are resources for finding placement for the bird OR keeping them as a pet. 

You can also find educational infographics to share here.